January 20, 2012
by Christine Yeres
With 36 comments since publication
In his draft budget for 2012-2013, Superintendent for Business John Chow provided a rollover figure—the increased cost of continuing the current program—of $2.8 million. Of that, the district is allowed a budget increase of around $1.4 million (labeled “tax cap limit” in Chow’s presentation), leaving administrators and board of ed members to find $1.3 million in reductions, which may include up to five full time teaching positions. Chow’s draft budget—not yet even a “proposed” budget, he emphasizes—also assumes the use of $3 million in reserves.
Not yet counted toward the reductions is the $500,000 in savings expected from the change in middle school schedule—with teachers of core subjects teaching more minutes in periods of 55 minutes. Those savings may be less now that administrators have found that an increase in the student population at Seven Bridges may require the hiring of two additional core subject teachers.
In the meantime, Superintendent Lyn McKay has released the results of the December 7 Knowledge Café at which 56 participants were asked to brainstorm on ways to reduce the district’s budget by around $1.8 million (now down to $1.3 in Chow’s draft budget), to suggest new sources of revenue, and to identify long-term budget concerns (these turn out to be, mainly, unfunded mandates and the paucity of commercial revenue sources in New Castle’s tax base).
As she promised she would, McKay has included not only the Budget Advisory Committee’s summary of the results (see below), but also two forms of raw data: the notes taken by facilitators at the Knowledge Cafe tables and the tablecloth jottings of the resident, parent, teacher and administrator participants (links are below). All these are provided below (and can also be found on the district’s website by clicking HERE):
The District held a Knowledge Café on December 7, 2011 with the following stated purposes:
1. To answer the Board of Education’s strategic question – “How can the District ensure continuing excellence in academic and extracurricular programs while developing a budget that is fiscally responsible?”
2. To engage the Chappaqua school community in exploring budgetary ideas.
Fifty-six members of the community and staff attended the Knowledge Café. The first hour was devoted to disseminating budget information to participants and the second hour was devoted to small group work sessions to solicit answers to the following three questions:
* Expenditures – What can we give up and what are the tradeoffs – give examples?
* Revenue – How else can we generate additional revenues to support the school budget?
* Long Term – What is a long-term financial issue that the school district must begin to address now? And, how?
The District’s Finance Advisory Committee was then charged with the responsibility of reviewing all comments and providing an executive summary. Below are highlights from the facilitator and tablecloth notes, which were collected at the Knowledge Café. The complete set of notes can be read at the following links:
Knowledge Cafe Facilitator Notes
Knowledge Cafe Tablecloth Notes
LONG TERM QUESTION
The comments from the Long Term Question encompass both expenditures and revenue. They present big challenges, not solvable by local Board of Education action alone. These are the issues, however, that drive the largest expenditures in the budget and can have the most impact on the tax levy.
State law constraints and mandates cause the greatest pressure on district spending. The pension contribution system, unfunded and under-funded state mandates, the tenure system and the Triborough Amendment were all repeatedly cited. It was suggested that the Board of Education and/or citizen groups lobby Albany both independently and in conjunction with other communities.
On the revenue side, the biggest long-term issue concerns the need to increase the commercial tax base. The town’s lack of a vibrant commercial tax base lowers the overall assessed value of the town and shifts a greater percentage of the tax burden to the residential properties. A coordinated effort by town and business groups to “lure” businesses to town is needed. The benefits will not be realized for many years, but the district/town must start exploring options at once.
REVENUE QUESTION
Various suggestions were made for increasing revenue. One important factor to consider is not to overuse one-shot revenue items. If the district is very successful at raising one-time funds in a given year, the short-term benefit may be a reduced tax levy for that year. Success at lowering the tax levy will have the perverse consequence of further limiting the expenditures for the following year.
In addition to the suggestion to raise the commercial tax base, the following items were suggested as possible sources of revenue for the district.
* Sell excess property
* Charge for use of facilities: Increase user fees, rent out excess space
* Reexamine busing – fees for longer routes, out-of-district routes
* Pay-to-play: Charging students for participation in athletics, theater and clubs. Legal question: Can the district still pay the salaries and other costs of the program, or do those costs have to be paid by a separate non-profit entity? If not, both revenue and expenditure get removed from the district budget. If the district wanted to restore district control of the program in the future, it would likely create a tax-cap issue. (Removal of expenditure probably lowers tax levy or is replaced by a different expenditure and can’t be added back under the cap.)
* Special Education: Charge other districts to educate special needs students. To have economies of scale, these students might need to be housed in one building.
* Increase fees: admission to events, parking for HGHS Seniors
* Commercial sponsorships – buildings, fields; cell towers, cafeteria items, technology
* Create and sell curriculum to other districts, on-line courses
* Fundraisers: kids’ art auctions, branded credit cards, alumni donations, grants
* Tuition-based summer program
EXPENDITURE QUESTION
There are some small items that can be implemented to reduce expenditures by a small amount. Real savings won’t be achieved without changes in Albany (as discussed above) and/or major structural changes to how we deliver education in Chappaqua, e.g., eliminating programs, significantly increasing class size, eliminating teams, etc.
Items mentioned at the café include:
* Seek efficiencies in transportation, reduce number of buses, eliminate short routes. (environmental trade-off)
* Conserve resources, shutter some buildings on weekends
* ½ day kindergarten
* Seek Special Education efficiencies
* Reduce staff: increase class size, reduce course offerings, consolidate/reconfigure schools, on-line courses
* Reduce professional development
* Reduce number of administrators
* Hire retired staff (no pension pay-in)
* Reduce number of aides (use parent volunteers)
~ Prepared by the Finance Advisory Committee ~
Copyright 2012 NewCastleNOW.org